MA Modern and Contemporary Writing (Part time)
Course options
Key Details
- Attendance
- Part Time
- Award
- Degree of Master of Arts
- Course Length
- 2 years
- Course Start Date
- September 2025
Why you should choose us
Course Overview
Our Part-time MA in Modern and Contemporary Writing combines criticism and creativity. It’s a unique opportunity to study contemporary literature where it is being made and where modernism is alive in the present.
Here a world-leading group of scholars in 20th- and 21st-century literature is intertwined with Europe’s most prestigious department of Creative Writing, and with the British Centre for Literary Translation. Here leading writers such as Kazuo Ishiguro, Angela Carter, W.G. Sebald, Ian McEwan, and Malcolm Bradbury taught and studied alongside pioneering critics such as Lorna Sage and Clive Scott.
This part-time MA course is very flexible. You’ll study classics of modernism, while choosing from optional modules in modern and contemporary literature. You can also take modules in creative writing, and modules bridging creative writing and criticism. We lead the discipline in the new field of the ‘creative-critical’. And you can also take modules in neighbouring disciplines such as gender studies, race studies, and film. Our MA in Modern and Contemporary Writing combines criticism and creativity. It is a unique opportunity to study contemporary literature where it is being made and where modernism is alive in the present.
At UEA, you ’ll be part of a vibrant literary world. Based in the School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing (by the way, you can follow us on Instagram!), you’ll’ be able to attend readings and author visits at UEA Live, volunteer with the UEA Publishing Project and visit the renowned British Archive for Contemporary Writing. Norwich is a UNESCO World City of Literature and host to the National Centre for Writing.
As a postgraduate here, you’ll be part of a vibrant mix of MA and PhD students who are engaged in modern and contemporary literature in a variety of ways, whether it be through producing critical studies of novels, poetry or plays, or through writing their own. Our students progress to careers in publishing, teaching, media, academia, journalism, marketing, and more. Many have progressed to do a PhD or gone on to publish their creative, critical, and scholarly work.
Study and Modules
Structure
The MA Modern and Contemporary Writing course takes one year of full-time or two years of part-time study.
In the autumn of your first year, you'll study the extraordinary experiments of the early decades of the 20th century (by writers such as Joyce and Woolf) and the living legacy their inventive works bequeath to contemporary critical and creative writing.
In the spring of your first year, you’ll choose one module from a bespoke range of modules which focus on postmodernist, contemporary or creative-critical writing or an optional module from the wide range offered within the School and beyond. These include further literary-critical and creative writing modules, and modules on film, translation, race and gender studies.
On these modules, you might explore the origins of postmodernist writers such as Pynchon, Muldoon, Ashbery, Carter, Perec, and Borges in modernist and pre-modernist writers, such as Dostoevsky, Joyce, and Kafka; or you may trace trends in relatively recent fiction, focusing on the ways in which fiction engages with the zeitgeist and current affairs but also ask how it responds to literary conventions, cultural heritage, philosophical traditions, and political ideologies. You might also study ‘creative-critical’ texts that seek to respond inventively to the literature they analyse; texts which, in their own language, structure, method, and thinking, acknowledge how they have been transformed by the art they have encountered. In doing so, you might look at recent examples of such writing – forms such as the essay, conceptual criticism, auto-commentary, and confessional criticism – and may have the opportunity to experiment with them yourselves, or you may explore ways of understanding and creating literature through parody and imitation that date back to before the creation of modern criticism in the 20th century. On some of these modules, you'll also get to do some work with the resources in UEA’s unique British Archive for Contemporary Writing.
Compulsory Modules
Optional A Modules
(Credits: 20)Whilst the University will make every effort to offer the modules listed, changes may sometimes be made arising from the annual monitoring, review and update of modules. Where this activity leads to significant (but not minor) changes to programmes and their constituent modules, the University will endeavour to consult with students and others. It is also possible that the University may not be able to offer a module for reasons outside of its control, such as the illness of a member of staff. In some cases optional modules can have limited places available and so you may be asked to make additional module choices in the event you do not gain a place on your first choice. Where this is the case, the University will inform students.
Teaching and Learning
Teaching
Throughout your course, you’ll benefit from being part of UEA’s renowned literature department – where we have one of the largest groups of critics working on modern and contemporary writing in the world. The scholars, critics, and theorists who have taught on this course include Stephen Benson, Tom Boll, Birgit Breidenbach, Clare Connors, Thomas Karshan, Duncan Large, Anshuman Mondal, Jeremy Noel-Tod, David Nowell-Smith, Rachel Potter, Cecilia Rossi, Karen Schaller, Jos Smith, Bharat Tandon, and Matthew Taunton. You may also be able to take courses from novelists, poets and playwrights, including Tiffany Atkinson, Giles Foden, Jean McNeil, Tessa McWatt, Henry Sutton, and Steve Waters.
Teaching on most modules is by one three-hour seminar per week, supplemented by occasional one-on-one meetings in office hours.
Assessment
Each of your modules will be assessed by a final 5,000-word piece, which, depending on the module, will be critical, creative, or creative-critical.
For most modules you’ll test your knowledge and practical skills in practice (formative) assignments before your summative assessments, which count towards your final grades. You’ll discuss your formative feedback with your teachers as part of a deepening self-reflective journey through your studies.
Structure
In the second year, you’ll take two further optional modules, from a wide range offered within the school and beyond. These include modules on contemporary, creative-critical or postmodernist writing as well as further literary-critical modules, creative writing modules, philosophical-literary modules, and a wide range of modules on pre-20th century literature, film, translation, American literature, race and gender studies. The programme concludes with a 12,000-word dissertation on a topic of your choice, which you'll begin in the spring of your second year and complete at the start of September.
Compulsory Modules
Optional A Modules
(Credits: 20)Whilst the University will make every effort to offer the modules listed, changes may sometimes be made arising from the annual monitoring, review and update of modules. Where this activity leads to significant (but not minor) changes to programmes and their constituent modules, the University will endeavour to consult with students and others. It is also possible that the University may not be able to offer a module for reasons outside of its control, such as the illness of a member of staff. In some cases optional modules can have limited places available and so you may be asked to make additional module choices in the event you do not gain a place on your first choice. Where this is the case, the University will inform students.
Teaching and Learning
In your second year, you’ll once again take one module per semester, selecting from a wide range of literary-critical or creative-critical modules as well as modules in other disciplines, such as film studies or philosophy. Modules will be taught in weekly seminars usually three hours in length.
Independent study
Independent study is especially important for your dissertation, which you'll tackle in your second year of study. In the spring of your second year, you'll have four two-hour seminars to prepare you for your work on the dissertation. This extended research project serves as the culmination of the work, both literary-critical and theoretical, that you have conducted over the course of two years of study. There is an opportunity to do creative-critical work on the dissertation, and many students have used it as a testing ground for further study at PhD level.
You’ll work one-to-one with a dissertation tutor on a topic of your own choosing. They'll encourage you to develop a topic that suits your particular interests, subject to their capacity to supervise the work effectively. And they’ll meet with you on a regular basis for substantial feedback on your work.
Assessment
Most of the option modules in your second year will also be assessed by a 5,000-word piece, supported by formative work which you'll complete over the course of the semester.
Your dissertation will be 12,000 words and may be critical or creative-critical, but not wholly creative.
Entry Requirements
- This course is open to
UK and International fee-paying students. Choose UK or International above to see relevant information. The entry point is in September each year.
- Typical UK Entry Requirements
Degree classification
Bachelors degree - 2.1
Degree Subject
Literary or Humanities
- Admissions Policy
Our Admissions Policy applies to the admissions of all postgraduate applicants.
- This course is open to
UK and International fee-paying students. Choose UK or International above to see relevant information. The entry point is in September each year.
- Typical International Entry Requirements
Degree classification
UK Bachelors degree - 2.1 or equivalent
Degree Subject
Literary or Humanities
- English Foreign Language
Applications from students whose first language is not English are welcome. We require evidence of proficiency in English (including writing, speaking, listening and reading):
IELTS: 7 overall (minimum 7 in Writing, 6 in Speaking, Reading and Listening)
We also accept a number of other English language tests. Review our English Language Equivalencies for a list of example qualifications that we may accept to meet this requirement.
Test dates should be within two years of the course start date.
If you do not meet the English language requirements for this course, INTO UEA offer a variety of English language programmes which are designed to help you develop the required English skills.
- Admissions Policy
Our Admissions Policy applies to the admissions of all postgraduate applicants.
Fees and Funding
Tuition fees for the Academic Year 2025/26 are:
-
UK Students: £10,675
-
International Students: £22,700
If you choose to study part-time, the fee per annum will be half the annual fee for that year, or a pro-rata fee for the module credit you are taking (only available for Home students).
We estimate living expenses at £1,136 per month.
Further Information on tuition fees can be found here.
Scholarships and Bursaries
The University of East Anglia offers a range of Scholarships; please click the link for eligibility, details of how to apply and closing dates.
Course Related Costs
Please see Additional Course Fees for details of course-related costs.
How to Apply
How to apply
Applications for Postgraduate Taught programmes at the University of East Anglia should be made directly to the University.
To apply please use our online application form.
Further information
If you would like to discuss your individual circumstances prior to applying, please do contact us:
Postgraduate Admissions Office
Tel: +44 (0)1603 591515
Email: admissions@uea.ac.uk
International candidates are also encouraged to access the International Students section of our website.
Employability
After the Course
After the course, you could follow in the footsteps of many past graduates who’ve gone onto PhD study at UEA or at other universities in Britain and internationally.
You’ll also be well placed to develop your own writing in fiction, poetry, journalism or literary criticism, or to move into careers such as publishing, teaching, or the media. Or you could simply see this MA as a pleasure and an end in itself.
Careers
Example of careers that you could enter include:
- Writing
- Academia
- Teaching
- Publishing
- Media
- Publicity
Discover more on our Careers webpages.